Soaring on slag piles: Sudbury economist pushes transportation changes.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SUDBURY

A Laurentian University economist is advocating for massive transformation of Greater Sudbury's transportation infrastructure, beginning with the conversion of the Vale Inco slag heaps into an airport.

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By acquiring the ubiquitous piles of slag, the city could flatten and pave them to create a more urban airport better suited to the city's needs, he said.

"There is no transportation plan, federally or provincially, for Northern Ontario," said Robinson, who argued that, at a half-hour drive away the existing airport is too distant from the city proper.

"So who's going to do a regional transportation plan? My suggestion is it's time for us to do it and stop waiting for those people who basically run Northern Ontario out of 13 closets at Queen's Park to figure out what we want."

The revolutionary airport concept was just one of several ideas Robinson pitched to a packed Chamber of Commerce crowd at Ristorante Verdicchio on Dec. 7. In attendance was the city's newly minted mayor, Marianne Matichuk, who Robinson addressed specifically on several occasions throughout his presentation.

Also on Robinson's hit list was his oft-repeated desire to reroute the Canadian Pacific railyards, which currently occupy "the greatest real estate in the downtown," he said.

The project would involve diverting the line eastward from nearby Chelmsford, where it would extend three miles to reach a north-south Canadian National Railway line. In so doing, the new line would require but one railway crossing as opposed to the dozen or two that are currently required.

"The biggest part of the downtown is actually rail yards. The best land in the region is actually being used to store not-very-useful rail cars."

The move would relocate the busy transportation hub outside the city's core, allowing for further expansions and the creation of related jobs, something that isn't possible with the rail yards' current location, said Robinson. The project would require up to $1 billion, he added.

Despite his encouragement of transportation infrastructure development, Robinson was more hesitant about proposals for several major roads projects. These include the extension of Barry Downe Road, a major artery, and Maley Drive...